Through the Cat's Eye
by NebulaBelt
Summary: A oneshot look at Catseye's life. The thoughts and history of everyone's favorite catgirl!


"THROUGH THE CAT'S EYE" PRESENT 

Catseye bounded back and forth happily as the helicopter landed. "The pilot will return to pick you up tonight at nine." Emma told her as Catseye unbuckled herself.

"Thank you for letting Catseye see Rahne today." Catseye thanked her as she stepped out of the copter.

"Don't mention it." Emma groaned. "I mean that. I'll see you tonight Sharon."

"Bye!" Catseye waved as the helicopter lifted off and headed back to Massachusetts. The helicopter had left her at the edge of a large forest not far from the Xavier Institute. She would be meeting Rahne here soon. Catseye grinned; she could hardly wait.

The time away from the other Hellions and the Massachusetts Academy was a welcome break in and of itself. It gave her time to think and relax, which she was often hard pressed to do between classes and missions.

She thought about a lot of things: Rahne, the Hellions, school, her sister, Evan, how mutants were treated, and loads of other stuff. But today, she was feeling reflective and started thinking about how her life constantly changed again and again.

Catseye thought back on the life she knew before Miss Frost…her new Mother, found her. Back when she was living as a cat.

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PAST 

A purple feline sat outside a mouse hole…waiting. It was a cold, dank alley and she would've just as soon preferred to be back in the—relatively—warm cardboard box she slept in. But she was tired of feeling her stomach shrink and cozy up to her backbone, so she waited for the mouse to show itself.

She was so intent on her food that it came as an even greater surprise when she heard a strange voice. She flicked her eyes left and right as she listened to a woman's voice in her head. She couldn't hear it in her ears, but in her mind. It was…pretty, alluring even.

"_You are more than you think you are. My name is Emma Frost and you can understand my thoughts, can't you?_"

"_I…understand_." The cat replied in her mind. She had always noticed differences between her and the other cats she grew up with. She understood faster. Understood more than they did. She could think…though she could never conceive of words in her head to accompany the notion. The voice in her head radiated approval.

"_Good. You are not a cat. You are a mutant like me._" The cat looked up as a pretty-looking woman with long hair stepped into the alley. "_Come with me, and I can show you what you are capable of._"

She hesitated for a moment and simply stared up at the woman. Did she want to go with her? "You have very stunning eyes." Emma noted aloud. "The choice is yours, but there is much that I have to offer you that you will never know here. Come with me."

With that, Emma Frost turned on her heel and started to walk away.

After a moment's decision, the cat followed her.

"You made the right decision." Emma said, not even bothering to turn around to look at her. "You wont regret this, my little cat's eye."

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**PRESENT**

Every now and then, Catseye felt a pang of homesickness for the old alley cat that raised her. Miss Frost taught her to be human, but her old mother had taught her how to be a cat. Miss Frost had said something about "Mowgli Syndrome" but Catseye wasn't sure what that had meant. Catseye had lived a lean existence, hunting for food, scrapping with other cats and stray dogs for food…She turned into a big lion now, but when she was younger Catseye wasn't much bigger than an average house cat.

It was a tough existence, but she liked to the think that she was stronger for the experience.

Strange that her whole life could change so quickly: One day she was prowling through an alley hunting for mice and digging through dumpsters and after hearing a strange voice in her head. Catseye had been surprised to see a human lady, especially a well-dressed one, in the alley but for some reason, she trusted her.

She said her name was Emma Frost and that they had something in common: they were both mutants. It was there that she gave Catseye her name, noting just how intense her eyes were in cat form.

From there, things took on an almost fairy tale quality (not that Catseye had known then what a fairy tale **was**, but she learned). When Catseye saw the Disney movie _Oliver and Company_, she fell in love with it. It was her story in a nutshell: A poor cat living out on the streets taken into the lap of luxury by a loving, caring woman who changed her entire life. Catseye even kept a small Oliver plushy in her room.

Miss Frost had said she was human. Catseye loved Miss Frost, but she still had her doubts sometimes about that. If Catseye were human, wouldn't she know? She felt more natural as a cat than as an ugly, ungainly, blind human. Try as she might, Catseye couldn't remember anything of her human life. All her memories were of being a cat.

In fact, Catseye recalled, it wasn't easy for Miss Frost to teach her how to be human. Reading she took to rather quickly but dinner manners were something else…

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PAST 

Emma Frost took a deep breath. "I'll start again. This is the salad fork and **this** is the butter knife…Do you understand?" Catseye blinked at her.

"Raarrmmm." She said as she started gnawing on her steak, not using the silverware or even her hands.

"At least she stayed human this time." Emma muttered as she rested her chin in her palm. "No wonder the last governess quit." She winced as Catseye paused for a moment and lifted her face out of the steak, her mouth and chin stained red. Catseye licked her lips and grinned.

"Hhmmmmrrrrm." Catseye squealed happily. In gratitude, she rested her head against Emma's shoulder and nuzzled it affectionately, purring her thanks for dinner.

"You're welcome." Emma muttered. "At least you stopped hunting the birds in my garden." Catseye coughed up a few feathers. "At least it wasn't a hairball." Emma allowed. Clearing her throat she continued. "I've finally managed to have suitable papers created for you: Identification, birth certificate, passport, medical history, everything. You're name is 'Sharon Smith' and I'm your legal guardian. Is that acceptable?"

Catseye just purred contently.

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PRESENT 

Catseye allowed herself the pleasure of a self-satisfied smirk when she thought about the day Catseye was made a Hellion…

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PAST 

Catseye stared nervously just outside of Emma's office as her mother addressed her Hellions: Beef, Bevatron, Jetstream, Tarot, Roulette, Empath, and Monet—after they had clashed with the X-Men and Misfits and fared poorly…again.

"I had such high hopes for you." Emma sighed. "Yet it seems that you're incapable of succeeding…or even of not humiliating yourselves and my academy!"

"It's not our fault!" Monet protested. "If that spaceship hadn't shown up at the camp or if the Misfits hadn't shown up at the School Board meeting…" Emma glared at her.

"If I were interested in petty excuses I would've asked you about your last term paper." Emma snorted.

"Well what can we do? There are a lot more X-Men and Misfits than us." Jetstream said.

"I'm glad you recognize that." Emma agreed. "So I'm going to help bring things into balance. Hellions meet your newest team member," Catseye gulped nervously as Emma telepathically summoned her inside. Emma waved her hand and directed the Hellions attention to her as she walked in. "Catseye."

Catseye stood uncomfortably for a moment as the Hellions looked her over. Despite being six feet tall, taller than all of them save for Beef, she still felt like she was under a microscope. Their eyes traveled over her unusual purple hair—not the result of any dye job—and even more noticeably her tail, which she kept even when not in her feline form. She saw several of the grumble and frown at her tail. Catseye willed it to stop moving but that clearly wasn't the cause of the problem.

"**WHAT**?" Monet shrieked. "Miss Frost, what in the world could possess you to let some lower-evolved genetic **throwback** in the Hellions?" There was loud agreement from among the others.

Catseye growled. Monet and the other Hellions reminded Catseye of the fat, pampered and spoiled house cats she had occasionally come across during her old life, before she met Miss Frost. They had looked down on alley cats like Catseye. She didn't like it then and she didn't like it now.

"Monet better watch her mouth." Catseye warned. "Catseye not like it when you talk like that." Monet just gave a cruel sounding laugh.

"Who taught you English?" She sneered.

"**I** did." Emma said shortly. "Catseye is my foster daughter."

Silenced crashed over the Hellions like a tidal wave.

"…Daughter?" Monet squeaked out.

"Daughter." Emma nodded. The Hellions collectively gulped. "I thought so." She grinned. "Catseye is a Hellion and is to be treated as such. If I hear anymore of this 'lower-evolved' nonsense again then I will erase **every** pleasant thought and memory in your head and replace them with memories of dental visits and puberty. **Got** **it**?"

"Yes ma'am." The Hellions chorused nervously.

"Glad to hear it. I'll leave you all to…socialize." Emma said as she nodded towards the door. "You may leave. I still have work to attend to. Dismissed."

The Hellions trudged out of her office and to the Hellion's dorm, where Emma's servants had been moving Catseye's few belongings into her room.

Catseye suspected something when the other Hellions' pace slowed, allowing Catseye to take the lead. As she started to turn into her lion form, her heightened senses alerted her to what her "compatriots" where about to do.

"Get the lower-evolved fre—EEK!" Monet shouted as a large purple lioness landed on her. Bevatron's electricity crackled over Catseye's head, so close that she managed to smell the burning ozone. Beef, who had been attempting to sneak up on Catseye from the other side, caught it right in the face and went down howling.

As Catseye swatted Bevatron with a massive paw, Roulette fired her black "bad luck" discs at her. "Come on kitty! Don't you know that black cats are bad luck?"

Catseye responded with a resounding roar that startled Roulette long enough for her to pounce. Jetstream attempt to dive-bomb Catseye was accidentally foiled by one of Tarot's cards, which produced a mighty blast of wind that blew him off course. Tarot and her cards knocked from her hands with a stroke of Catseye's paw.

"That's enough Catseye. Yield!" Empath ordered, attempting to manipulate her emotions. "Yield!"

Thinking quickly, Catseye began to turn back to her human form leading Empath to think his attempt was working. But halfway through, she stopped. In her half-lion form, her physiology was too different for Empath to manipulate. Humans he could handle. Were-cats were another story.

"What sneaky bad boy think? Maybe play a game with Catseye, yes? See which is stronger—nasty heart power…or claws?" Catseye hissed in her half-lion state. Empath raised his hands in a token of surrender.

Catseye nodded once as the Hellions picked themselves off the ground. Monet in particular look furious as she nursed a purplish bruise on the right side of her face. Catseye had passed their "initiation test" but knew she had won few friends among the snobby, elitist and prideful Hellions, who looked upon their drubbing with resentment and anger.

"Look kitty." Monet hissed. "You got lucky here. And you got lucky by having Miss Frost sponsor you. You may be Miss Frost's adoptive daughter but you're going to have to pull your own weight here."

"Catseye do that all her life." Catseye replied simply. "I not about to stop now."

"See that you don't." Monet hissed as she stormed off.

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LATER 

Catseye sat alone in her room as the other Hellions went out to party in Boston, leaving Catseye all by herself in the Hellions' Dorm. Again. She might be a Hellion, but Catseye still wasn't "one of them." She ended up spending most of her time alone. It wasn't so bad but still…

"Sharon? Could you come downstairs for a moment?" Emma called from the front door. "I have someone I want you to meet." Curious, Catseye headed down the stairs to see her mother. Standing next to her was a young, dark-skinned African-American teenaged girl with long crimped hair and brown eyes.

"Hello mother. Who this?" Catseye asked her.

"Sharon, this is Yvonne Bloom, also called Celandine. She's a telepath under my tutelage. I've made her my foster daughter too. That makes her your sister."

The bottom of Catseye's stomach dropped out and she felt a pang of worry. Did this mean her mother didn't lover her anymore? Was she being replaced?

If Emma heard her thoughts, she made no recognition of it. "Sharon, I want you to keep her visit here a secret. I don't want her revealed to the other Hellions…yet." Emma cursed when her cell phone started to ring.

"I have to take this call, you two can get to know another." She said as she walked outside.

Catseye stared at Yvonne nervously. She'd had very little interaction with other girls her age, especially ones who were suddenly made her sister.

"…hi." She said nervously. "My name is Sharon. People also call me Catseye. You…know mother?" She asked with a twinge of fear. Yvonne nodded.

"Miss Frost rescued me from a…bad place." Yvonne answered carefully. "I don't like to talk about it."

"Mother found me living in streets. I Catseye thought I was a cat."

"A cat?" Yvonne blinked.

"Long story." Catseye said as she briefly went to her lion form and back again. "You…mutant too?" Yvonne nodded.

"I'm a telepath."

"Like mother?" Catseye asked. Yvonne shook her head.

"My telepathy has certain…side effects that hers doesn't." She said. "I'm a toxic telepath. That's why they call me Celandine…a type of poisonous plant. I'm hoping that Miss Frost will help train me well enough so that I'm half the telepath she is."

Catseye's face fell. She was a metamorph, not a telepath. There wasn't much her mother could instruct her in regarding her mutant abilities. With a new sister who shared Frost's mutation…well it would be one more thing to bind them closer together and shut Catseye out.

Yvonne obviously read her face or her thoughts. In either case, she knew what was worrying Catseye.

"Look. Sharon, I know that Miss Frost means a lot to you—from what I've heard, she's the only family you've ever really known. I'm not going to take her away from you. She really cares about you and I know that even without using my telepathy. So, since we have Miss Frost in common we might as well be friends. Right…sister?" Catseye blinked at her. Yvonne…wasn't going to steal mother away? She wanted to be sisters? Catseye felt a huge smile coming on as she embraced her newfound sister fiercely.

"HAPPY DAY! CATSEYE GOTS SISTER!" Catseye squealed happily.

"OOOF! Something tells me that you're the exuberant type, aren't you?" Yvonne groaned.

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PRESENT 

Catseye grinned. It wasn't the most normal life one could have imagined for oneself, but going from a cat in an alley to where she was now was pretty impressive nonetheless.

She went from having nothing to having a home, a mother, a sister, a great education, and became part of something larger than herself.

"Hey, Sharon!" Rahne called as she ran up. "You ready to go?" She pointed towards the forest. It looked large, wild, and unexplored.

Story of her life, Catseye thought.

"Catseye ready…for anything." She grinned as the two of them started to change form. "Let's go!"

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**THE END**

**Catseye, Rahne, Emma Frost, and the Hellions are © to Marvel Comics.**

**Yvonne Bloom-Frost and Misfitverse is © to Red Witch**

**Story is © to me.**


End file.
